Qatar’s energy minister has said the country will not build pipelines as an alternative route for transporting gas around the Strait of Hormuz, as the option would not be commercially viable.

Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad al-Kaabi said the decision was based on commercial and technical considerations, speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“We made the decision not to consider pipelines as an alternative, based on commercial and technical criteria,” Al-Kaabi said, reported Qatar Energy’s press service.

Qatar already exports gas in liquefied form. A pipeline alternative would therefore require the gas to first be transported in gaseous form before being liquefied again at receiving terminals, wherever they were located, he explained.

“This would mean building duplicates of the facilities being constructed in Qatar as part of the North Field expansion project. From an economic point of view, this makes no sense,” the minister added.

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